Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

Victorian boy refused ambulance after his colostomy bag burst

A regional Victorian boy who suffers from an extremely rare connective tissue disorder was refused an ambulance after his mother was told the bursting of his colostomy bag was not considered "life-threatening”, his family says.

Kim Parr said when she called Triple 0 on Mother's Day she did so out of desperation as not only had her 16-year-old son Liam’s colostomy bag burst next to an open wound in his stomach, but the nasogastric (NG) tube in his nose was blocked, which meant she could not give him any pain relief.

Mrs Parr said she also phoned for help after becoming fearful for her son's life given the family live in Eden Park, almost one-and-a-half-hour drive to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Liam is one of only a handful of people in Australia with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type 4, a disorder which causes weaknesses in the skin. It is this disorder that led to the teenager ripping holes in his stomach and intestines which must be left to heal on their own over several months.

“We know that it’s got to be an emergency, I wouldn’t ring them otherwise and I was just stressed for Liam on that day, I really needed that help,” Mrs Parr told nine.com.au.

However, Mrs Parr said when she was put through to an emergency operator, he was “aggressive and almost rude” and refused to send help because Liam’s condition was not “life-threatening”.

“He said, ‘It’s going to be a long, long, long time for an ambulance to get there… I suggest you get him in the car and you take him to hospital’,” she said.

Related Articles

“That’s when I’ve just gone, ‘Oh my god’. I couldn’t speak. What he said to me and the way he said it was like a smack in the face. I thought, ‘Ok, you’ve gutted me now’.”

Left with no choice, Mrs Parr, her husband Adrian and Liam’s grandfather set about trying to get Liam to the hospital themselves.

Mr Parr called the hospital where surgeons advised them to wrap Liam around his middle in cling wrap.

“First I had to clean as much as I could with toilet paper, his wound and the leakage and everything,” Mrs Parr said.

“We had a big nappy which I opened up over the colostomy bag so it didn’t fall.

“I grabbed the nappy and held it tight. His pa and his dad got the cling wrap and we wrapped him up like a mummy.”

Liam was seemingly a completely healthy boy until his diagnosis last September. ()

After the trio helped Liam into the family’s van with his walker, they laid him down and Mrs Parr began the long drive to hospital.

“It felt like it took forever to get there. I thought, ‘why is there all this traffic’, it was bumper to bumper, and then I realised it was because it was Mother’s Day,” she said.

When they finally arrived at hospital the staff were prepped and ready with a wheelchair to greet Liam and he was given some pain relief. He underwent emergency surgery at 1am the next morning to fix the bag and clean the wound.

In a statement to Nine.com.au, Ambulance Victoria Executive Director Emergency Operations Mick Stephenson acknowledged an ambulance should have been dispatched for Liam.

“A preliminary review of the case has indicated that an ambulance should have been dispatched and would have been had we correctly investigated the patient’s medical history,” Mr Stephenson said in the statement.

“Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and we are extremely sorry for the distress that the patient and family has endured.

“We have left messages with the family and are actively trying to speak with them to discuss this case and offer our sincere apology.”

Ambulance Victoria would be conducting a thorough internal review to ensure it did not happen again, he said.

In the past 10 months, Liam has had surgery 83 times. ()

For Mr and Mrs Parr, Liam’s diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type 4 came completely out of the blue last September.

When their seemingly healthy child came down with cold and flu-like symptoms and severe stomach pain they took him to their GP who immediately called an ambulance and he was rushed to hospital.

There tests showed up a 16 cm wide and 4cm deep hole (the size of four tennis balls) inside his stomach and another hole in his intestines. A blood test confirmed he had the rare disorder. Liam would spend the next nine months in hospital.

Mrs Parr said what happened with Liam last week showed there was a flaw in the way Ambulance Victoria dealt with patients with severe and life threatening illnesses.

“There is something that’s got be done on their system for people that don’t live close to a hospital and have got someone with a life-threatening condition in these situations. To alert them these people need help,” she said.

“The next time I want to call an ambulance I will be doubting myself and I don’t want to doubt myself with my son in that situation.”

Measurements show the wound in Liam’s stomach has almost halved in size since it was discovered, but doctors estimate it may take another eight months to close up completely. It was only last month that Mr and Mrs Parr were able to take their son back home.

“It was importantly mentally for him to get home in his own bed so he can see his friends and family. Nowadays I have to keep him positive and keep him going,” Mrs Parr said.